I got up really early Friday
morning, so I could catch the first direct bus to Managua. It picked me up
outside San Isidro at 5:30am. I arrived in Managua around 7am and knew I would
have to get a cab to take me from the north bus stop to the south bus stop. I
was told that I shouldn’t leave the bus terminal to get a cab, but all the cabs
were filled with men. The idea made me uncomfortable. As I was weighing my
options, an older lady, who was also waiting for a cab and had been tired of
getting shoved aside by men getting in the taxis, asked me if I wanted to share
a cab with her. I agreed, so I picked up her bag of potatoes and helped her
carry them outside. She told the cab driver that I would be getting dropped off
first then her. She was so kind to me.
After I arrived at the other bus
stop, I grabbed another bus to the port and then hopped a ferry to the island
of Ometepe. Ometepe is located in Lake Nicaragua. I had decided to go to
Ometepe because there is another Iowa State intern who is working on a
permaculture farm there. I hadn’t really talked to her about coming, but on the
ferry, I ended up meeting the director of the farm where she was working. He
invited me to stay on the farm for the weekend.
I traveled with them to the farm
and hung out for the night. The farm is really pretty and remote. It is located
on the smaller part of the island at the foot of the volcano of Maderas. We
played some games and chatted.
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| View of the volcano Conception from the farm. |
Saturday
I got up around 6am, so that I
could climb the volcano of Maderas. It is the smaller of the two volcanos on
the island of Ometepe, but people can’t climb the other one due to the constant
sulfur at the top because it’s active. It stands at almost 1400m tall and has a
Laguna at the top in its crater.
I went with another person from
the farm that had not climbed the volcano yet, so we could split the cost of a
guide. We started around 7:30am and finally reached the top at noon. It took
4.5 hours, which is a bit longer than most people take. However, I still
consider it pretty good because it was my first real hiking experience. I also
was not wearing real hiking shoes. I was only wearing tennis shoes. The path
was almost entirely volcanic rock, mud, and tree roots. It was really steep and
muddy because it is in the clouds. I was also blessed with really short legs,
which made it difficult it for me to climb fast. I soon realized that it was
better for me to go at my own pace rather than to try to keep up with the guide
and other guy because I got tired too quickly.
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| Part of the path |
I had a lot of time for reflection
during my hike. It was a really hard hike. During the last hour, I really had
to dig deep to get to the top. There were so many trees, it was impossible to
see the top or where anything was other than the path. It was a great feeling
to make it to the top! However, it was kind of anti-climactic since you
couldn’t see anything due to all the trees. I did however meet a couple from
Iowa at the top. We ate lunch on the top, but the sandwich I bought was awful.
Therefore, all I had to eat for the day was two mini bananas and a mango, plus
the two liters of water I drank.
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| At the top!!! |
I went at a pretty good pace
for most of the way down, which was surprising because it was pretty difficult.
However, about halfway I hit a wall and started to slow down. Then about an
hour away from the bottom, pure exhaustion hit, and I started to fall down a
lot. In all, it took about 3.5 hours to go down, which is about average
according to the guide. The best part about the climb down was the howler
monkeys I saw. I saw a mom and her baby and then I captured a video of another
one eating!
Since the climb took a bit
longer than what I thought it would, I missed the last bus out of Balgue. I
therefore, had to stay another night at the farm. I had hoped to go and check
out Altagracia or Moyogalpa, which are the bigger port cities where the ferry
would leave from on Sunday, but I was too exhausted to walk anyways.
Sunday
I got up at 4am, so I could
walk to Balgue, to catch the first (and only) bus to Moyogalpa. However, I got
lost on the paths leading from the farm and ended up doubling back on accident.
Therefore, I missed the bus. One of my goals while in Nicaragua is to learn how
to go with the flow and not be an obsessive planner. Therefore, I just sat down
and read my book. One of the girls woke up and offered to walk me to town, so I
could figure out how to get off the island. She took me to a hostel, where the
owner offered to drive me.
I ended up making the second
ferry of the day, and as it turned out, a bus to Managua was waiting at the
port when I got off the ferry on the other side. Everything ended up working
out perfectly. I took the same sequence of transportation back to San Isidro
and arrived around 3:30. I decided that doing laundry was essential before
going to Sabana Larga because my clothes smelled awful. Overall, it was a
pretty good trip. I learned a lot about myself and am hoping that the success
of the volcano will follow me into the week as I dive into stove testing.
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